Blue Devils capture first hockey regional since 2007

Monday

Mar 4, 2013 at 11:50 AMMar 4, 2013 at 11:53 AM

By PETER PIETRANGELOThe Evening News

GAYLORD — The Otsego County Sportsplex has been a House of Horrors for Sault High during the regional final over the last few years, so when the Blue Devils went into the locker room up by just two goals after two periods, they were still a little worried.

"Nervous," junior Will Gauthier said. "We were wanting to get more goals and have a bigger lead."

He took care of that pretty quickly. He passed the puck up to Eric Hillock, who beat Alpena goalie Bret LeTourneau for a power-play goal 2 minutes, 49 seconds into the third period, and Gauthier assisted on a Ryan Dalsky goal at the 6:36 mark as the Blue Devils won their first regional title since 2008, 4-0 over the Wildcats.

The Blue Devils will face Houghton on Wednesday in Marquette.

"When you're only up by two, you get thinking," Blue Devils coach John Ferroni said. "If they score early, it's 2-1 and all of a sudden it's game on. But Hillock made a big-time play."

The Blue Devils have had tough luck in this game, losing in double overtime to Big Rapids in 2011, losing 5-4 to heavy underdog Cadillac in 2010 and 4-0 to an underdog Big Rapids team in 2009.

"For a lot of our guys, especially guys like CJ Wilkins, Ben Formolo and Ryan Dalsky, this was a big day," Ferroni said. "They've came up short for a couple of years and really wanted this one."

The Blue Devils went through their region shutting out all three opponents and outscoring them 20-0. Goalie Nick McKenzie stopped 13 shots in the first period and had 26 saves for his third consecutive shutout.

"It's a big confidence booster," McKenzie said. "We've been playing a lot better, not necessarily te best we've played all year, but we're working up to being whee we were back in December."

Ferroni said while McKenzie has been the unquestioned No. 1 starter all year, his game has improved throught the season and especially in the last month.

The Blue Devils were outshot 13-11 in the first period but got on the board when Kyle TenEyck skated through the defense slipped a pass through the slot to Hillock for a 1-0 lead. The Wldcats had a number of great chances to tie the game, on a Zach Nash breakaway, and then later when he hit the post on the power play.

"This group has been a bunch of warriors," Wildcats coach Pete Doubek said. "They played well, but the Sault goalie was absolutely phenomenal. If we could have got one of those shots to go early."

Gauthier's shot from the point on the power play was tipped in by Chase Gamelin at the 3:51 mark of the second period for a 2-0 lead. The Devils had to fight off a five-minute checking from behind major on Kolbe Peller that started with 41 seconds of 5-on-3 hockey.

"Alpena didn't quit at all," Ferroni said. "They're a tough group to play against. In fact, we had a hard practice — a hard practice the day before a game — because we knew otherwise the first period was going to be tough."

The Blue Devils beat Houghton 6-3 in the final of the MacInnes Holiday Classic in Houghton back in December in the team's lone meeting this year. The Gremlins, who advanced to the state finals last season, beat Calumet 8-3 and Hancock 5-2 to cruise through their region.

"If we play all three zones, you've got a good chance of shutting teams down," Ferroni said. "Our backcheck is there and Nick's playing great. We're confidence we can go to Marquette and be in the game, win or lose."